Apple iPhone Backstory? Mac OS X Tie ins?

[jmbear]

There are no mobile WiMax networks, yet. What good will it do to have it on your phone? Maybe in a few years, but not now.

Maybe not in the US, but all of Mexico City is covered by a Wi-Max network (thats about 22M potential customers that pay way too much with Telcel and Telmex).

And if you have Skype-In and Wi-Max, you basically got a cellphone with the cheapest calling rates ever. Apple and many other US firms need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and realize there is tremendous growth potential in countries outside the US. Just because in the US you don't have Wi-Max or still have crappy CDMA, it doesn't mean you have to cripple your products (specially in the mobile phone market in which the US is behind Europe and some of Latin America)

I don't wanna deal with charging everyday.

Lazy bum

 

[princealfie]

Maybe not in the US, but all of Mexico City is covered by a Wi-Max network (thats about 22M potential customers that pay way too much with Telcel and Telmex).

And if you have Skype-In and Wi-Max, you basically got a cellphone with the cheapest calling rates ever. Apple and many other US firms need to pull their heads out of their collective asses and realize there is tremendous growth potential in countries outside the US. Just because in the US you don't have Wi-Max or still have crappy CDMA, it doesn't mean you have to cripple your products (specially in the mobile phone market in which the US is behind Europe and some of Latin America)


Lazy bum

Amen, amen.

 

[koobcamuk]

this is why phones should have keyboards, too. predictive text only gets you so far before you start to get annoyed.


Hmmm i'm from UK and i now live in New York. I've realised that Americans simply don't text as much as we do in Europe. I used to send at least 20 a day. And they are soooo clow at texting it's like it hasn't even really caught on yet. God and some of my friends can't work predictive text to save their lives!

Dunno what the new iphone would have in store but i find texting with a number keypad more than adequate.

I agree. I hope apple has done their homework as America is far behind regarding cell phones and the culture that drives it. I just hope it's not a dud.

 

[Carefulle]

Video

I think with the recent acquisition between google and youtube -and the fact that the CEO of google is a board member of Apple- will only mean some interesting type of video access.
Question Is the H.264 a better compression than whatever youtube has?

 

[asphalt-proof]

Why do you have to make the decision now? Is there a gun to your head? Are you impatient? Young? Prone to instant gratification?

Are you one of those people who won't buy a new MacBook because there might be a newer one coming in the next six months?

Sorry, not trying to bash or flame.

Back on topic... I like the idea that this phone may be unlocked. It's so bothersome to have technology tied to long service contracts. It's such a painful business strategy for the consumers. Similarly, I'm excited by the rumors that there will be both CDMA and GSM versions of the product. Everyone wins that way. Not just everyone in America, but most of the world. That's the rumor I want to believe in the most.

No gun nor is it an instant gratification thing (I am married so I know all about delayed gratification ). Its more of a work thing. My phone is dying. I don't need a phone as much as I need an organizer for work. I am due for an upgrade with CIngular so I have to decide if I wait till January (and us a paper organizer in the meantime) or if I go ahead and get a 3125. I am not good with paper organizers but I can make due for a few weeks. There are also a couple of related work-specific reasons as well.

 

[kristoffer4]

I hope it will be something like this, spec wise!
http://www.gsmarena.com/lg_ke800-1765.php
Just with either 4 or 8GB
Come on Apple put in the camera!

 

[emotion]

I think with the recent acquisition between google and youtube -and the fact that the CEO of google is a board member of Apple- will only mean some interesting type of video access.
Question Is the H.264 a better compression than whatever youtube has?

I was about to post something along these lines. It seems to me that iChat(AV) could be used more by people instead of Skype and other options. In the university environment especially. The fact it's so closed will always limit it's deployment. Teaming up with google might help here.

 

[JMax1]

Headset with built-in iSight?

Not a bad idea! Car steering wheels with build in iSight.

See Futurama episode "Put Your Heads on My Shoulder"

 

[pizzy]

...

what if the iPhone has wi-fi and iChat A/V capabilities are available when the phone has a wi-fi connection, therefore not using cellular networks to transmit all that data which would be cumbersome and difficult. Furthermore, a device that has the ability to switch between cellular networks and VOIP would be very powerful and extremely useful and benneficial. I believe this is the path Apple will take, politics permitting. The device could act like a Skype phone at home on your wi-fi connection and make cellular calls when roaming about. imagine.

and tight integration with OS X is a given. There is no way this phone will not sync tightly with Address Book, Mail and iCal. not to mention the possibility for selecting finder folders which the user wishes to have automaticall sync up with the iPhone as well. And of course iTunes integration - identical to the way syncing is currently done with the iPod.

 

[jthrasher]

did anyone else see Jay Leno last night? He mentioned the Apple iPhone in his monologue saying that "Apple is coming out with a new product in time for the holidays called an iPhone"

 

[sartinsauce]

No gun nor is it an instant gratification thing (I am married so I know all about delayed gratification ). Its more of a work thing. My phone is dying. I don't need a phone as much as I need an organizer for work. I am due for an upgrade with CIngular so I have to decide if I wait till January (and us a paper organizer in the meantime) or if I go ahead and get a 3125. I am not good with paper organizers but I can make due for a few weeks. There are also a couple of related work-specific reasons as well.

In that case, I say wait. If you think you can hang on for a few more weeks, wait and see. If you're anything like me, you'd kick youself for running out and buying a new phone, only to have Apple release something cool a couple of weeks later.

Worst case scenario, no Apple Phone comes, and you get a post-holiday discount at Cingular.

 

[emotion]

did anyone else see Jay Leno last night? He mentioned the Apple iPhone in his monologue saying that "Apple is coming out with a new product in time for the holidays called an iPhone"

This is a carefully stage managed hype campaign then?

It's working on me it has to be said

btw. my phone no longer charges. Apple get a move on!

 

[Bubbasteve]

With all the ongoing rumors of the iPhone I have a few things I would love to see it "sport" -- and very easy to accomplish...

1.) Headphone jack (as used for the iPods)

2.) Charged through iPod USB Cable, hence the iPhone would have a dock connector

3.) You could listen to your phone calls through the headphones -- furthermore you could have one hell of a speaker phone if you plugged your iPhone into say an FM transmitter or cassette player thingy (or a home stereo system or speaker set for the iPod)

4.) You can play music through things like an iTrip or some other device so if you're with your friends and they don't have a certain song on there iPod you can plug in your iPhone and select the song from your library.

5.) I would like it if it had a QWERTY keyboard so I could text people free of charge in selected Wi-Fi hotspots (through iChat mobile?)

I would really like the first 4 but the 5th would be a true luxury (to me at least)

Moral of the story -- MacWorld can't come soon enough!

 

[bfineman]

Carries, WiMax, Videoconferencing

Carriers: Someone early in the thread speculated that it would be great if Apple released a pair of unlocked phones that would work on the wireless carrier of your choice. While I agree that this would be great, it will not happen. Wireless carries are extremely conservative about what phones they will allow on their networks. For example, Verizon (the largest US carrier) puts all of its phones through a rigorous certification process before it releases them, as well as loading them with custom Verizon firmware. They do not allow non certified phones to be activated on their network. So, if they ever did release the iPhone, it would be a Verizon version purchased from Verizon, probably with a featureset limited by Verizon.

WiMax. Someone said they wanted a WiMax enabled phone, which I agree would be sweet, but it's also not going to happen yet. There is no mobile WiMax chipset yet. Yes, there are a couple cities that have WiMax deployed, but you need an external receiver box and antenna to use it - it's to mount on the outside of you house, no so conducive to laptops (or phones).

Videoconferencing. This could be the killer app if they do it right. Someone mentioned the asymetric bandwidth issue, with which I totally agree - phone companies aren't interested in giving you much upload bandwidth. However, someone else speculated that video could be an option that's only enabled when you're connected to WiFi - this seems the most likely implementation to me. While I'm sure with a dedicated chip they could pull off compression decent enough to send video over a cellular link, the other problem that they'd run into is latency, and I don't know how they would solve that on the cellular link. Then again, they're smarter than me, so maybe they'll figure it out.

Random comments. Battery life - sure, 200 hours of standby time is nice, but really, is it so much to ask to charge your phone every night? It's a rare night that I sleep away from a power outlet. And if I'm camping, I'm not taking my precious iPhone along. Skype - iChat has built in voice functionality and Skype is a competitor in that space. Of course what we're looking for is a VoIP client that can call regular phones so we can avoid fees, but the wireless carriers will sure push back hard on that one - once you no longer need their network, you no longer need them. I'm sure Apple could set up VoIP -> POTS calling in iChat AV, but I don't think they're interesting in getting into that space. I agree it would be sweet though. Presence - this will be important. Being able to set your "available/away" status, or even better, available for "text/voice/video" escalating presence. iChat AV already has this, so I would be surprised if they didn't carry this over. One idea that I thought would be neat would be to set your presence automatically using your iCal calendar. ie, if I have a meeting from 1pm-2pm, the phone automatically sets my presence to "Available - Text" for that period, and back to "Available - Video" when I'm done.

Oh, and the Slingbox style streaming form iTV is a great idea too.

 

[koobcamuk]

Carriers: Someone early in the thread speculated that it would be great if Apple released a pair of unlocked phones that would work on the wireless carrier of your choice. While I agree that this would be great, it will not happen. Wireless carries are extremely conservative about what phones they will allow on their networks. For example, Verizon (the largest US carrier) puts all of its phones through a rigorous certification process before it releases them, as well as loading them with custom Verizon firmware. They do not allow non certified phones to be activated on their network. So, if they ever did release the iPhone, it would be a Verizon version purchased from Verizon, probably with a featureset limited by Verizon.

WiMax. Someone said they wanted a WiMax enabled phone, which I agree would be sweet, but it's also not going to happen yet. There is no mobile WiMax chipset yet. Yes, there are a couple cities that have WiMax deployed, but you need an external receiver box and antenna to use it - it's to mount on the outside of you house, no so conducive to laptops (or phones).

Videoconferencing. This could be the killer app if they do it right. Someone mentioned the asymetric bandwidth issue, with which I totally agree - phone companies aren't interested in giving you much upload bandwidth. However, someone else speculated that video could be an option that's only enabled when you're connected to WiFi - this seems the most likely implementation to me. While I'm sure with a dedicated chip they could pull off compression decent enough to send video over a cellular link, the other problem that they'd run into is latency, and I don't know how they would solve that on the cellular link. Then again, they're smarter than me, so maybe they'll figure it out.

Random comments. Battery life - sure, 200 hours of standby time is nice, but really, is it so much to ask to charge your phone every night? It's a rare night that I sleep away from a power outlet. And if I'm camping, I'm not taking my precious iPhone along. Skype - iChat has built in voice functionality and Skype is a competitor in that space. Of course what we're looking for is a VoIP client that can call regular phones so we can avoid fees, but the wireless carriers will sure push back hard on that one - once you no longer need their network, you no longer need them. I'm sure Apple could set up VoIP -> POTS calling in iChat AV, but I don't think they're interesting in getting into that space. I agree it would be sweet though. Presence - this will be important. Being able to set your "available/away" status, or even better, available for "text/voice/video" escalating presence. iChat AV already has this, so I would be surprised if they didn't carry this over. One idea that I thought would be neat would be to set your presence automatically using your iCal calendar. ie, if I have a meeting from 1pm-2pm, the phone automatically sets my presence to "Available - Text" for that period, and back to "Available - Video" when I'm done.

Oh, and the Slingbox style streaming form iTV is a great idea too.

In the UK and many other leading cellular phone countries (where we actually use our phones a lot more than Americans) unlocked phones are commonplace. America might tie it to a contract but Apple can't use Verizon in the UK... so whom? Needs to be unlocked and sold in Apple stores. If it's sold in phone shops, to specific network (s) I will be angry.

 

[jmbear]

WiMax. Someone said they wanted a WiMax enabled phone, which I agree would be sweet, but it's also not going to happen yet. There is no mobile WiMax chipset yet. Yes, there are a couple cities that have WiMax deployed, but you need an external receiver box and antenna to use it - it's to mount on the outside of you house, no so conducive to laptops (or phones).

Wrong! Look at what Motorola is planning.

"WINMAX PROTOTYPE ON THE WAY With Motorola as a main infrastructure provider for Sprint's planned WiMAX network, what does the company have up its sleeve for phones to support that network? Shaddock says his division will have a prototype WiMAX phone that can be used for trial purposes in the first half of 2007. That would meet expectations for Sprint's plans to have a soft WiMAX in some markets by the end of next year".

A Wi-Max/Wi-Fi GSM/CDMA phone would be a killer phone. You could deploy it globally with few compatibility issues. Moreover, integration with VoIP services like Skype would make every intelligent consumer switch to that phone regardless of their carrier. And for the dumb consumer, just add an iPod to the phone!

I know battery life might be an issue, but you don´t really need more than 24 hours. I would not mind to charge my phone every day if I get lower rates through VoIP. Hell, electricity is way cheaper than what Nextel charges me!

 

[rtharper]

Carriers: Someone early in the thread speculated that it would be great if Apple released a pair of unlocked phones that would work on the wireless carrier of your choice. While I agree that this would be great, it will not happen. Wireless carries are extremely conservative about what phones they will allow on their networks. For example, Verizon (the largest US carrier) puts all of its phones through a rigorous certification process before it releases them, as well as loading them with custom Verizon firmware. They do not allow non certified phones to be activated on their network. So, if they ever did release the iPhone, it would be a Verizon version purchased from Verizon, probably with a featureset limited by Verizon.

1) As mentioned before, unlocked phones are a lot more commonplace outside of the US.

2) You cited one carrier that uses a technology that does not allow SIM card swapping (indeed, there are no SIM cards at all). Anyone know if the GSM networks in the US have this restriction on their phones? What about other CDMA providers? I doubt you'll find that your specific case generalises very well.

 

[BWhaler]

Perhaps this site might be more up your alley http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

Clever.

http://crunchgear.com/page/2/

Apparently Apple is stopping production on the matte MBP portable line until issues are resolved.

Small is hard. Apple isn't good at it. That my point, and the reason why I am worried that their phones will suffer from the same problems...

 

[benbow]

ringtone excesses

As one of the last cellphone holdouts, I am puzzled by the extra loud and usually obnoxious ringtones most cell phone users have set up. Not to mention the reflex panic and cluelessness that occurs in public when users want to turn off their ringing cell phone. Usually the less skilled users just end up answering the call to quiet the damn ringing.

What might the iPhone offer? a tiny ping like I get with an incoming email? Or do we have to wear a bluetooth gadget in our ear at all times to get those non-public alerts of incoming iPhone calls?

Innovation is sorely needed in the ringtone control department.

 

[inlimbo]

Innovation is sorely needed in the ringtone control department.

No what we sorely need is legislation in the ringtone department. Preferably banning a lot of them. Or imprisoning people who don't know how to use the 'silent' feature on their cell phones (particularly those who catch my early train into the city!)

 

[bfineman]

jmbear: I stand by my WiMax statement, which was "not yet". The quote that you cited said maybe by the end of next year, which sounds perfectly reasonable, but the end of next year is about a year off, which I think qualifies as "not yet". Of course Apple has pushed the technology envelope before, so who knows. Prove me wrong Apple!

rtharper: If we start looking "outside the US" there are myriad mobile technologies that us US customers only dream of. Since I live in the US, for my purposes, that's what I'm talking about. I agree that it would be possible to see an unlocked iPhone that you can activate on the GSM network of your choice. What sucks is that Verizon still has the superior national coverage area, which is why I still use it even though I despise them. Cingular's network is quickly catching up though, so if it came down to it, I'd be happy to jump ship for an iPhone. Perhaps this would give Verizon the kick in the pants that it needs to revise its manipulative certification policies.

 

[Goldfinger]

Carriers: Someone early in the thread speculated that it would be great if Apple released a pair of unlocked phones that would work on the wireless carrier of your choice. While I agree that this would be great, it will not happen. Wireless carries are extremely conservative about what phones they will allow on their networks. For example, Verizon (the largest US carrier) puts all of its phones through a rigorous certification process before it releases them, as well as loading them with custom Verizon firmware. They do not allow non certified phones to be activated on their network. So, if they ever did release the iPhone, it would be a Verizon version purchased from Verizon, probably with a featureset limited by Verizon.

If they want to succeed in the cell phone market then it WILL be an unlocked phone. Sold through Apple without any ties to cell phone carriers. Stop thinking so US-centric.
It will be an unlocked phone available in CDMA and GSM versions. Unless Apple screws over the rest of the world again. Maybe we can wait anther 2 years... Who knows.

WiMax. Someone said they wanted a WiMax enabled phone, which I agree would be sweet, but it's also not going to happen yet. There is no mobile WiMax chipset yet. Yes, there are a couple cities that have WiMax deployed, but you need an external receiver box and antenna to use it - it's to mount on the outside of you house, no so conducive to laptops (or phones).

WiMax would be cool but I doubt it, except for maybe the high end model. I personally don't really care for it.

Videoconferencing. This could be the killer app if they do it right. Someone mentioned the asymetric bandwidth issue, with which I totally agree - phone companies aren't interested in giving you much upload bandwidth. However, someone else speculated that video could be an option that's only enabled when you're connected to WiFi - this seems the most likely implementation to me. While I'm sure with a dedicated chip they could pull off compression decent enough to send video over a cellular link, the other problem that they'd run into is latency, and I don't know how they would solve that on the cellular link. Then again, they're smarter than me, so maybe they'll figure it out.

Cell phone plans that offer the possibility/capacity for videoconferenceing are prohibitively expensive every where. Would be cool if the phone allowed for it but most people wouldn't use it anyway because of cost.

Random comments. Battery life - sure, 200 hours of standby time is nice, but really, is it so much to ask to charge your phone every night? It's a rare night that I sleep away from a power outlet. And if I'm camping, I'm not taking my precious iPhone along.

I for one would not touch a phone with a ten foot pole if it had less than 200h of stand by time. Running out of battery is the most annoying thing ever. I never lug around my charger everywhere I go. It almost defies the point of having a portable phone. I love to go away for 5 days without needing a charge.
I'll bet you that if this iPhone has a crappy battery nobody will buy it. Except for people who don't care about having a crappy battery and Apple fan boys who'll buy it anyway.

Plus, a battery only has x-number of cycles untill it dies. And knowing Apple it will probable have a fixed battery like the iPod. So being able to do as long as possible on a single charge is a plus.

I agree it would be sweet though. Presence - this will be important. Being able to set your "available/away" status, or even better, available for "text/voice/video" escalating presence. iChat AV already has this, so I would be surprised if they didn't carry this over. One idea that I thought would be neat would be to set your presence automatically using your iCal calendar. ie, if I have a meeting from 1pm-2pm, the phone automatically sets my presence to "Available - Text" for that period, and back to "Available - Video" when I'm done.

Would be great. But not a single non-Apple phone would be compatible with that.

 

[Goldfinger]

As one of the last cellphone holdouts, I am puzzled by the extra loud and usually obnoxious ringtones most cell phone users have set up. Not to mention the reflex panic and cluelessness that occurs in public when users want to turn off their ringing cell phone. Usually the less skilled users just end up answering the call to quiet the damn ringing.

What might the iPhone offer? a tiny ping like I get with an incoming email? Or do we have to wear a bluetooth gadget in our ear at all times to get those non-public alerts of incoming iPhone calls?

Innovation is sorely needed in the ringtone control department.

What you want is possible on just about any phone out there. Most people just don't change their ringtone settings or they even like the loud obonxious ringtones.
There is not much left to innovate in the ringtone department.

 

[lmalave]

Clever.

http://crunchgear.com/page/2/

Apparently Apple is stopping production on the matte MBP portable line until issues are resolved.

Small is hard. Apple isn't good at it. That my point, and the reason why I am worried that their phones will suffer from the same problems...

Huh???????????

Apple isn't good at small??!!??? M'kay.

Never mind that they are currently the undisputed leaders of "small" in:

Hard-drive based iPods: nothing touches the 30 GB and 80 GB iPods for compactness.

15.4" and 17" laptops: no one comes close to 1" thin and 5.6 or 6.8 lbs. respectively.

And with the iPod nano, MacBook, iMac, and Mac mini, they may not be *the* smallest, but they are still the leader in combining smallness with quality and style.


And folks, Apple does *NOT* have quality problems compared to the rest of the industry!!!!!!!!!!! Quite frankly, Apple customers are just more whiny. There is just NOT a culture of PC users complaining on "dellforums.com" or "vaioforums.com". Such forums exist, of course, but not to the same degree. Plus every survey I've read says that Apple has the LOWEST defect rate in the entire computer industry. No one else has a lower defect rate. Not Dell, not HP, not Gateway, not Acer, not Sony, not Fujitsu, not Toshiba, etc.

Apple is the quality leader, folks. I trust scientific consumer surveys which ask objective questions (e.g. how many times the product had to be sent for repairs). Anecdotal evidence is interesting and is certainly influential on a personal level (e.g. if you have a friend that had problems with a particular brand), but it is NOT the measure of quality.

 

[BWhaler]

Huh???????????

Apple isn't good at small??!!??? M'kay.

Never mind that they are currently the undisputed leaders of "small" in:

Hard-drive based iPods: nothing touches the 30 GB and 80 GB iPods for compactness.

15.4" and 17" laptops: no one comes close to 1" thin and 5.6 or 6.8 lbs. respectively.

And with the iPod nano, MacBook, iMac, and Mac mini, they may not be *the* smallest, but they are still the leader in combining smallness with quality and style.


And folks, Apple does *NOT* have quality problems compared to the rest of the industry!!!!!!!!!!! Quite frankly, Apple customers are just more whiny. There is just NOT a culture of PC users complaining on "dellforums.com" or "vaioforums.com". Such forums exist, of course, but not to the same degree. Plus every survey I've read says that Apple has the LOWEST defect rate in the entire computer industry. No one else has a lower defect rate. Not Dell, not HP, not Gateway, not Acer, not Sony, not Fujitsu, not Toshiba, etc.

Apple is the quality leader, folks. I trust scientific consumer surveys which ask objective questions (e.g. how many times the product had to be sent for repairs). Anecdotal evidence is interesting and is certainly influential on a personal level (e.g. if you have a friend that had problems with a particular brand), but it is NOT the measure of quality.

Um. Did you actually read the link?

When this hits the major new cycles, remember this post.


(But I did enjoy the numerous repeating exclamation points and question markets.)